This distinctive mode of movement gives the impression of dancing and is an important field characteristic that helps in identifying the species from even a distance.

[6] Charles Thomas Bingham in his The Fauna of British India, Including Ceylon and Burma volume on butterflies describes the species as follows:[7] A very variable form.

[7] Male: Upperside the maroon brown not glossed with purple; the transverse fasciae on the forewing and the black markings on the hindwing much as in the wet-season form, but the former more obscure, more diffuse, the latter smaller.

Typically, these differ slightly from A. echerius as follows: Upperside with no purple gloss; the discal and postdiscal transverse bands more clearly defined, the former sometimes white anteriorly on the upperside, generally white or whitish on the underside and extending across both forewings and hindwings; underside of hindwing with an extra, subterminal black spot.

[7] This species lives in the Himalayas, Chumba to Kumaon, Nepal and Bhutan; Ambala; Fyzabad; Malda; Calcutta; Gunjam; southern India from below Pune and Mumbai; Sri Lanka; Myanmar (Tenasserim); China.

[7] The eggs of the butterfly are laid on host plants belonging to the family Primulaceae, including Ardisia species, Maesa indica[8] and Embelia laeta.

[9] Flat, very broad in the middle, tapering to both ends, clothed sparsely with short hairs; head small, not enclosed in the 2nd segment; colour light green.